Arise moves to larger location

PORTALES — An eastern New Mexico organization that connects sexual assault survivors to resources just hit a growth spurt.

Arise Sexual Assault Services, a branch of Roosevelt General Hospital, moved Monday to the previous site of Victory Life Church at 801 W. 18th St. from its location at 1412 S. Ave. O and, according to Director Leigh Ana Eugene, provides increased anonymity for survivors.

"At our old facility, we had the one entrance, so anyone coming in would be meeting people coming out, and we felt like it would be in the survivor's best interest to have more than one entrance," she said.

"So now, the facility will allow for a SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) exam to take place at the same time as administrative duties, at the same time as counseling, and those people never have to cross one another. It's very exciting."

Additionally, victim advocate training programs that once had to be conducted elsewhere can now take place on-site, Eugene said.

"We used to beg people for their conference rooms, and because our victim advocates all have to be trained — they have to receive 40 hours of training, which goes over two weekends — sometimes that's asking a lot of our community members," she said.

Where interns would once have to stay in the front of the building because of lack of space in Eugene's office, they now have enough room to work alongside her.

"Typically, they would have to run back and forth between my office and the front, and now they'll be in my office, so we'll be able to do a lot of things together," she said.

Portales Police Department Detective Charlie Smart works with Arise on sexual assault and child abuse cases. He said he sees the new space as a 360-degree transformation from the previous location.

"They were pretty much working out of a shoe box where they were at, and the equipment that they have and the privacy is just 100 times better where they moved to," he said.

The change will allow ARISE to better assist PPD with cases, specializing in areas where detectives are not trained, according to Smart.

"Their abilities to specialize in examinations and looking for certain things pertaining to sexual assault and child abuse is just phenomenal. They can testify to it easier than what we can because they are medically trained, where we're not," he said.

Eugene said the new space will provide opportunities for Arise that were never possible at the old location.

"We made things work at the old facility, but this is going to allow so many things to happen at once. I'm really excited," she said. "There's been a lot of construction happening over here — new flooring, new carpeting. It's just gonna be a nice experience and a comfortable environment for our survivors."